


Bonds Reborn

by 29PheonixLement



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Turned Into Vampire, F/F, F/M, mostly cannon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-26 23:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30113490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/29PheonixLement/pseuds/29PheonixLement
Summary: More proof William the Bloody has a soul
Relationships: Angel & Spike (BtVS), Rupert Giles & Tara Maclay, Tara Maclay & Buffy Summers, Tara Maclay & Dawn Summers, Tara Maclay & Spike, Tara Maclay/Willow Rosenberg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

He’d been around to pick up a few fresh blood bags when they’d brought her in. Her body still warm when he’d threatened his way into the back to see just who it was, they’d taken from the Summer’s home after only seeing a flash of blonde hair being wheeled away down the hall.

It was a split-second decision a crazy one at that unheard of and most likely pointless considering that despite her still warmed appearance her heart had stopped beating long before he’d gotten to her. Not the ideal option for the plan unfolding in his head.

“You didn’t deserve this pet.” He murmurs his hand resting against the side of her head as he carefully inspected what he could see of the single life-ending wound at her collarbone.

The shot was sloppy at best yet lethal in its after-effects.

“But I’m going to make this right.” He promised taking extreme care in lifting her from the cold hard slab they’d dropped her on. Her head lulling until it was nestled against his shoulder with her arm falling back behind his neck almost as if she was simply sleeping in his arms despite the disproving splattering of blood staining her pale blue shirt.

He only needed to change into his true face once on his way to keeping his newly given promise when the braver of the two male nurses working that night tried to take the blonde from him while he waited for the smarter more terrified of the pair to add in a few extra items to his normal order of blood bags.

******

“What the hell are you doing William?”

Spike didn’t turn his head at the sound of Angel’s grumpy tones although a part of him was impressed the elder vampire had found them so quickly after Spike’s abrupt departure from Sunnydale. Not that he had much choice since he didn’t want to see the looks on any of the Scoobie’s faces if his idea didn’t take. Not that Red would let him live that long after she found out what he’d done if what he’d heard she’d done to Warren was true.

“You know sometimes I forget we share a bloodline.” The white-haired vampire sighed still doing his best to keep the already dead heart circulating enough to mingle enough of his own dead blood into her veins.

“You know this isn’t how our kind is made.” Angel reminds. “our children need to be at the point of death to be turned why are you---"

Spike cuts the other man off with a deep animalistic growl as he rounded on his sire. Dru would always be his first but Angel. Angel was the closest he’d had to a father in this undead life. And right now, he wanted nothing more than to punch his undead father right in his gut if he didn’t shut up soon. “Then find me a way to talk to the so-called powers so they can sort this mess out. Cause she didn’t deserve **_this_**.” Spike snapped pushing the needle on his end of the transfusion tube deeper into his veins with his teeth earning a full fang out hiss of discomfort as his face changed to that of his true self.

“Why do you care so much?” Angle wonders noticing the delicate care the normally sullen white-haired vampire had taken with the blonde from cleaning whatever amount of blood was left from her fatel wound to placing a small pillow and fluffy looking blanket under her to keep out the unforgiving chill of the hard stone lid of the coffin Spike was using for a table.

His prized long black leather duster draped over her like a blanket.

“The real reason.” He clarifies before Spike could growl out another ‘she didn’t deserve this’ comment.

“She was kind to me, even when I gave her every instance under the sun to hate me she didn't and when she did it was only because I'd royally messed up,” Spike admits after a long pause shifting his face from his true form to his more humanized one as he tries yet again to push just enough of his own blood into her for her to open those inquisitive blue eyes of hers.

He didn’t mind if she woke up wanting to attack him so long as she was back.

“Buffy trusts her, Giles and Xander both adore her, and Dawn well she was like the second-best big sis and mother figure, Little Bit could ever want.” Spike lists but breaks off when traitor tears burn his eyes. “They need her.”

“She smells like Willow,” Angel notes realizing that name had been left out of Spikes mini listing approaching much more consciously now. The sheer power of even the dying embers of magic in this one human was incredible.

“As she should. They shared far more with each other than just a love of magics” Spike clarifies then his expression turned much more serious. “Trust me when I say this one’s love story with Red complicated as it sometimes puts even our tortured romances with Dru, Darla, and Buffy combined to shame.” Spike says as plainly as he can when talking about the honest love, he’d seen between the two Wicca lovers despite all the bumps in the road they’d had along the way.

“Wow.” Was all Angel could think of to say. “What do you need me to do?”

Spike glanced over at his ‘grandsire’ as he’d once heard Xander jokingly call him. “Really?”

“She’s special to you, to Buffy…. I want to help.” Angel says honestly shrugging off his own long coat tossing it away over one of the lawn chairs Spike had set up to make the dank crypt a little homier. “Anything you need.”


	2. Meanwhile back in Sunnydale

“What the hell do you mean someone **_took_** _her?”_ Buffy asks through clenched teeth. Really, it’s only Giles’s trembling hand against her shoulder that’s keeping her from beating the daylights out of the terrified young man behind the counter.

Xander deciding to stay behind at the house to look after Anya after her mini fight with a grief-stricken Willow and to keep an eye on a shell-shocked Dawn who to the best of Buffy’s knowledge had yet to leave the back bedroom still tearfully staring at the dark stain of blood that had seeped into the carpet before they’d had to make that heartbreaking call to have Tara’s body moved.

They hadn’t even begun to think about how they were going to find Willow yet after they’d watched her brutally murder the man who’d taken Tara from them.

“Just what I said, Miss.” The teen stammers looking between the bloody stain on her white jacket and the angry look on her face not knowing which he was more warry of “the body---”

“Tara.” Buffy corrected the hard marble of the countertop cracking under her clenched fingers “Her name is Tara Maclay not ‘the body’ show her some damned respect.” The tearful slayer barked her voice creaking as easily as the stone against her palm.

“T—Tara then….” The boy nodes as Buffy takes a shaky breath in at least some slim attempt to get her tangled emotions back under control before Giles steps in his hand yet to move from his slayer’s shoulder quietly guiding his slayer over toward one of the softer looking chairs to rest for a little bit. Shedding his jacket to drape over her shoulders despite knowing full well it wasn’t the chill of the morgue that had her shoulders trembling as her head dropped shielding her tearful expression behind her hair.

“I assume you have some kind of surveillance in place?” he guesses after seeing to the one he’d come to think of as a surrogate daughter as best he could given the circumstances noting the blinking light of a camera on the wall over the front desk. “Might we be allowed to examine the video from it?”

Something close to relief flashes across the younger man’s face as he nodes his eyes darting between the pair before he waved Giles behind the counter as he rolls his chair over toward the computer monitoring the video feed.

“Giles?” Buffy hiccups noting the way when in quick succession discussed, then curiosity, and finally something close to pain twisted hope flickered across her watcher’s face at wherever it was playing out over the small screen. “Giles, what’s wrong?” Buffy questions pulling Giles’s coat tighter around her shoulders as she got up from her chair on shaky legs.

“Is this the only record of what happened I assume?” Rupert demands choosing to momentarily ignore Buffy’s nervous question, his tone even and delicate to anyone but his watching Slayer. Buffy herself even shrinking back a few inches across the top of the desk at the show of thinly masked aggression.

The male nurse nods his head “Yes sir, we erm….We didn’t even get a chance to properly check the bo---erm I mean check T-Tara in before she was taken by that….that thing.” He hastily explains this time cowering not from Buffy’s warning glare but from Giles’s. “wait…sir you can’t just…that’s city property….” But the disk holding whatever video file he’d just watched was already in Giles’s hand as he rounds the end of the desk back toward Buffy.

“Destroy it.” He orders her dropping the thing on the ground between them. Rather than question him, Buffy lifts her foot bringing her sneaker clade heel down as hard as her worn-out body allowed on the glinting cd. After all, she was nearly killed again a few hours ago and hadn’t had a chance to properly clean herself up just yet.

“Good girl.” Giles praises pausing to press a light kiss against the side of the young woman’s head whilst he kneels long enough to scrape the pieces of the broken disk into his hand then stow them away into the pocket of his jacket before turning back to the panicked young man in the middle of calling for the police this is until Giles rips the phone cord out of the wall before the call could be picked up.

“Now I am incredibly sorry for any inconvenience we have caused.” The Englishmen says dusting his hands from the plaster dust as he lets the phone cord fall from his hand. “But I think it would be for the best of you and that other young man I noticed was also here at the time to simply forget everything that happened this afternoon.” He goes on producing several large bills from his pocket. “I’m sure this should cover the damages.” He says without bothering to count out a fair amount before passing over at least half of the produced funds stowing the rest back inside his pocket at the agreeing node.

“Goodnight then.” Giles smiles signaling for Buffy to follow him as he heads back toward the door.

“I think the poor kid actually peed himself.” The tired slayer chuckles as they walk shoulder to shoulder back toward Giles’s car.

“Yes, I think your right.” Her watcher agrees but Buffy can already tell he wasn’t entirely paying attention to what they were talking about.

“Giles, what’s going on?” Buffy asked blocking him when he tried to open the driver's side door. “Who took Tara?” Not even Buffy could tell if it was more anger or fear in her voice when it cracked on the name as her hand rested on the older man’s arms holding him in place.

“Someone who….” Giles started to say then pauses shaking his head and rubbing his eyes under his glasses before starting again with Buffy chooses not to notice the tear tracks on his cheeks when he next meets her eyes. That curious mix of pain and anticipation replacing most of his grief when he speaks. “All I will say is despite this air of indifference he puts up he does care very deeply about what happens to any in this mismatched family of ours meaning that whatever happens in the next few hours Tara will be well protected as fiercely as if she were still with us.”

Buffy could only splitter aimlessly at the lack of a straightforward answer, but Giles waves her off then pulls her close allowing for his overwhelmed slayer a few moments to hide her tears against the front of his sweater comforting her as any father would his own grieving child before rocking back on his heels when Buffy nodes in quiet agreement and thanks as she swipes away the rest of her tears walking around to the passenger side of the car as he climbs behind the wheel. “Now not that I think they will want to eat considering the events of the day but what do you think the others would want in way of a late supper?”


	3. Wicca Reborn

“Slap Jack.”

This time Angel was ready for it catching Spike’s wrist before he could make contact. His cheek already stinging from the last round the pair had played since moving from several rounds of ‘War’ with the card deck Spike had produced to pass the time while they waited.

“You’re supposed to slap the cards Spike, not your opponent.” Angel reminds his tone similar to that of a parent scolding their unruly child as he pushed the other man’s hand away.

“Buzz Kill.” Spike scoffed reshuffling the cards to play another hand until as one both men’s heads turn toward the resting body laying just a few paces away when they noticed a finger twitch out of the corner of their eye.

Spike was closest speeding the few short steps with his hand already moving to rest against the side of her head in some form of comfort when she sucks in a pained breath she didn’t need as if finally coming up for air after being suffocated.

“You’re alright witchling.” He promises as golden blue eyes snap open into her new life. He knew it was coming yet he didn’t move to stop it. Not even when her fist flashed outright at his face.

He deserved it. That and much more. Besides he’d done the same to her once after her so-called family tried to drag her back with them only for Tara’s true family to come to her rescue, refusing to let her go without a fight.

He feels the break the same time her body is in motion flipping away in an acrobatic arch that was awe-inspiring even for their kind before he’d even recovered from the force of the hit.

“Well good to know she’s still all fisty Wicca.” he grinned blatantly ignoring the blood dripping from his now broken nose as he crosses to the small table where a waiting mug of reheated blood rested on a repurposed candle warmer.

Now he knew she would be as alright as any newly turned vampire can be Spike wanted to make this next part as painless as possible. She’d need to feed the sooner the better, yet he knew her well enough to understand that no matter how much her new instincts would demand kindhearted Tara wouldn’t be willing to feed off a living human let alone long enough to drain away their life simply to sustain her own.

Lucky for her, he and Angel had already come up with another solution while waiting for her to wake up. Now the choice would be hers to make.

Take the blood from the mug or take the blood from the box.

“William.” Angel growled dropping to his knees outside the inviable barrier the newly awakened vampire had thrown up in defense as she cowered in the corner trembling in panic. Both men sympathized. Her senses heightened to superhuman levels overwhelming her no matter how much they’d tried to lower the triggers like dimming the lights and blocking out the shrill buzz of the nightlife outside the crypt as best they could.

“Don’t,” Spike growled coming back to them blood cup in hand with the cardboard box he’d picked up earlier containing option number two tucked under his other arm. “She knows me better.” He reasons setting both items down within easy reach once the barrier was taken down. He could already see her eyeing them curiously amid the mistrust clouding her sharpened gaze.

Angel rolls his eyes but stands up slowly even by human standards when he noticed those piercing blue eyes tracking his every move before sliding back to the still kneeling man almost directly in from of her.

“Ss--Sp-Spike?” Tara stammered her clawed hands still clamped tight over her ears blocking out the noise.

“Welcome back little witch.” Spike smiles his voice as soft as he could make it as he drops to his knees like his sire had beforehand in an attempt to make himself as small of a threat as possible while Angel hovered a few paces behind him.

“Where is she, William,” Tara demands her face changed to that of her now true vampiric self her golden eyes casting around in a panic before she speeds to her side of the inviable wall keeping the men a bay. “She was just here--- but now---where _is_ she? Where is _My_ Willow?”

“Breath pet.” Spike instructs knowing that regardless of her newly undead status Tara was on her way to one heck of a panic attack unless they could find a way to calm her. The room already trembling with the strength of her powers. He knew she would be a special one given her title when she was human but this. This was something else.

He and Angel both spend the next few minutes coaching her through several breathing exercises in staving off panic attacks with each man giving soft reassurances after each successful one was completed before moving to the next. 

After a few rotations, Tara too takes a seat on the uneven floor across from them her legs tucked under her and the ripple of the magically created barrier still between.

A precautionary measure for them or for herself none were sure of.

“What’s the last thing you remember, before waking up here?” Spike asks once the room had stopped shaking without so much as flinching at the lingering crackle of power around Tara’s clawed hands as she wraps her arms around her legs bringing her knees under her chin.

“Spike.” Angel warns remembering how traumatic reliving their human deaths can be for newly turned vampires. As he expected Spike ignore him waiting patiently for the blonde to answer while Tara’s brow furrowed as she struggled to do as her sire asked in remembering her last human memory.

Both were surprised when the blonde gives a playful giggle very reminiscent of one of Drusilla’s dreamy sighs before answering “Dawnie smiling at us from her bedroom doorway… she was so happy Willow and I had gotten back together.”

Spike mirrors her happy grin knowing how much the younger Summers’s enjoyed seeing the love between the two witches grow by the day. “What else?” he coaxes.

Tara’s brows knitted together even tighter as she probes her foggy mind. Going by the shy smile curling her lips Spike could guess she was about to say something regarding a certain red-haired Wicca but instead Tara answers with a soft. “Xander….he and Buffy were talking in the back yard under our window….”

They could tell by her sudden hiss of phantom pain she’d gotten to the more painful part of her last moment alive.

“Willow’s shirt….it---it was all bloody….I….”

The sounds of ripping fabric follows her nervous words as Tara’s claws dig into the front of her own shirt. A spare black tee shirt William had changed her into after he’d finished cleaning the rest of the blood from the wound to her heart doing his level best not to intrude too much on Tara’s modesty as he worked.

The blood-stained blue one she had been wearing was folded neatly to be disposed of later however Tara herself deemed fitting.

A terrified agonized cry cut the air on Tara’s next ragged breath and at once both men were on their feet struggling to break the barrier keeping them from their newly turned child. The thing reminding both of what it felt like needing an invitation into someone’s home before being allowed to cross the doorway.

“Tara.” They can’t tell who says it first

“It h-h-hurts.”

Any other time the return of the blonde’s soft stutter would have warmed Spike’s, dead heart. Now however it just made him hurt more as he like Angel beside him continued to push at the unmoving wall Tara had put between them.

Now Tara was gasping for breath she didn’t need as if she were being suffocated without anyone touching her as she rolls onto her back with another pain-filled scream as if the uneven rocks now digging into her back were white-hot branding irons.

“Tara, please let us help you.” Angel pleads tears already sliding down his cheeks as the pain she was feeling ripped through their bloodline searing them both from the inside out.

Spike understood it. The searing agony of the bullet that had taken her life. And he had been the one to force her to remember it all over again now with an all-new vampire level clarity.

“Goddess it burns.” Their daughter sobbed her tone still with the rough gasping edge as her own tears fall thick and fast from her tightly closed eyes as she rolls onto her side still clawing at the smooth white flesh where Spike knew the fatal wound had once been. “M--Mmake it stop.” She begged her gaze flickering between the other two caught up in her pain. “Mother Earth please, make it stop.” She pleaded closing her eyes against the pain.

“Tara. Please love, take the barrier down.” Spike insists knowing that even if both he and Angel ordered her, she wouldn’t be able to stop reliving the pain of that particular memory until it had played itself out in her mind. “Take it down and we can help you.”

“I want Willow.” Tara sobs. Willow always made her pain go away just by being around her even when the red-haired one was the cause of her pain.

“I know you do love.” Spike nodes hating himself all over again for making her relive the pain of her own death. Honestly, he was surprised the crypt he’d chosen to hide her in hadn’t caved in on itself yet given the extent of the damage Tara’s unstable abilities continued to cause.

“I want _my Willow_.” The anger was back amid the pain but unlike Angel whose soul complicated the current torment searing through their bloodline, Spike had no problem handling the pain doing its best to drown, then burn then finally to completely rip apart the writhing blonde from the inside out.

“Problem is Red’s not here right now pet.” Spike confesses “but take the barrier down and I’ll give you the closest I could get to her.”

Angel sends his ‘son’ a puzzled look, but Spike’s gaze never wavered from Tara’s pain-filled eyes.

“Lire.”

William shook his head walking at a more normal vampire speed toward the second of the two duffle bags he’d brought with them on his flight from Sunnydale. He was back in less than a second prize in hand. “No, I’m not.” He mummers holding it up for her inspection.

Tara’s eyes snap to it immediately.

The red and gray number 78 shirt Willow had been wearing during their taking with Dawn. How Spike had come by it Tara didn’t care as she reached out like a toddler being offered their favorite toy.

“Barrier first little witch.” Spike reminded dropping back to his knees

Tara let out a strangled sob at the bargain her clawed hands dropping back to the rocky ground as she rolled over away from them curling into herself on another painful twist of the small bit of metal she would carry with her as long as her new second life lasted. Spike having been more than a little preoccupied with setting his planes to turn her into motion as soon as he felt they were safe to think about removing said bullet completely.

“Come on Nibbit.” Spike encourages “I know it hurts love but try. Please.”

The only way to describe what happened next was the barrier warped in on itself like a door opening to one while keeping out the other.

Immediately Spike was at her side dropping the shit into Tara’s whiting hands but before he could speed away as he’d expected her to want him to the new vampire’s other hand closed in a vise around his wrist.

“Stay.” His child whispered giving his wrist a small tug back toward her When his eyes met hers just to be sure he’d understood her they had returned to that dazzling shade of blue as her face shifted back from vampire to human. “Please… s--st-stay.”

William nodes carefully folding himself down at her side with Tara scooting over enough to pillow her head against his thigh once he settled down once again sitting with his legs crossed under him allowing her sire to card his hands through her hair like she was some domestic cat while the calming Wicca vampire casts a soft preservation and protection spell on the soft cotton fabric in her hands wanting to protect that delicate scent currently clinging to the fibers as she pressed the prized shirt against her nose letting the combined flavors of sage, spiced vanilla and something she couldn’t name but was, so distinctly Willow chase away the lingering stabs of pain.


	4. In on the Secret

“You’re hiding something. You and Buffy both. I want to know what it is.”

Giles starts in surprise. It had been the first time in days that Dawn had spoken aside from crying out in fitful rounds of what passed for sleep. The younger Summers had cornered him in the kitchen whilst the others were out either on patrol or doing their best to look for Willow. Giles having opted to stay behind both to look after Dawn and continued his self-appointed research into the creation of new vampires under the guise of getting a start on Tara’s funeral.

He knew full well the coffin would need to be weighted but between them, he and Buffy had yet to find a way to do that without arousing suspicions especially after already making the others hot under the collar at their hasty insistence on holding services for what only two among them would know to be a bodyless grave.

“What makes you say that?” the Englishmen wondered resting his clasped hands on a file folder of different casket options.

Dawn’s red-rimed eyes narrowed. “You’ve been different ever since you went to …. To…” She trailed off with a shaky breath unable to say the words. ‘To claim her’ “and now Spike….Spike is gone….He’s just gone.” She says instead her arms folding tightly over her front. “Kind of makes me wonder why that is.”

“I’m sure Spike had a very good reason for his departure.” Giles shrugs not trusting to meet her gaze as he turns his attention back to the pages spread out over the table in front of him.

“Tell me what’s going on.” The teenager demands her tone far angrier than any he’d ever witness from her to date.

Giles’s head lifts again surprises and a little fear in his eyes as he looks at her “Dawn.”

She shakes her head glaring at her thought angry tears. “I deserve to know.” She insists. “Aside from Buffy, _she_ was the closest I had to a mom and a sister.” Her voice was starting to break again but she wasn’t about to back down. Not now.

Tara was the only one of the ‘Scoobies’ to treat her like a real person and not just the kid sister of the Slayer. She was her best friend even after Buffy sacrificed herself then came back from the dead and their bond only deepened despite Tara and Willow’s last big break up.

“Truth is I don’t know myself.” Giles confesses “all I do know is that Spike was at the morgue when Tara was brought in…and …and then he le….left with her.” it was the first time he’d confessed this to anyone outright it had been Spike that had taken Tara’s body from that place.

The first sight of honest joy crossed Dawn’s face at the news the teen going so far as to do a little dance of happiness before sprinting out of the kitchen leaving Giles nervously staring after her already bruiting himself for possibly giving the younger woman false hope. After all, nowhere that he had been able to find had a new vampire been turned once the body had already died.

Before he could follow her as the finally happy teenager raced up the stairs toward her room, the front door opened allowing a tired-looking Xander and Anya into the house.

“No luck finding miss tall, angry, and veiny.” The former vengeance demon laments following Xander into the kitchen whilst Giles backs away realizing he’d have to wait a little longer to go fix the false hope he’d inadvertently given Dawn.

“How’re things here?” Xander questions fishing a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Giles can tell by the way his eyes drift toward the ceiling he meant how was Dawn, but Giles only sighs heavily in answer giving a small shake of his head. “Well, at least she’s decided to leave her room.” Xander murmurs as he like the other two notices the sounds of the shower running overhead.

“Well, I know Buffy said something about dressing her in that cute gold and blue dress _she_ wore when Xander cursed us to sing and dance like some flashy musical number so what about this one?” Anya offers after only a glance at the casket options Giles appeared to be combing over.

“Have you seen the price tag on that one An?” Xander cuts in with a humorless laugh at the reminder of one of his more amusing blunders more than a little surprised with her pick after draining half the bottle in three long sips before passing it over into Anya’s waiting hand for her to finish.

“To hell with the expense, Alexander. Tara was the best of us, she was without a doubt the freaking soul of this ragtag group of us, so she deserves the absolute best we can give her even…. even in the afterlife.” His ex argues struggling to get out the last part around a choked-off sob.

Xander had his arms around her in seconds knowing that Anya hadn’t been allowing herself to grieve since finding out about the tragic fate of the groups other resident magic user after she’d woken up after trying her best to stop a power-hungry Willow from turning all black-haired and supercharged in her grief.

“We all miss her An.” He mutters smoothing a hand in Anya’s hair as she clings to him “and your right, Ta---she was the best of us.” He agreed not even able to bring himself to say her name just yet as Anya muffles another sobbing cry against his chest.

Giles soon joins the other two when Xander’s shoulder also begins to shake when he too finally allowed himself to give in to his grief.

All three too distracted to notice the dark-haired teenager eyeing them from the hall as she continues sneaking down the stairs a carefully packed backpack slung over her shoulder pausing just long enough to give the embracing trio a found saddened glance before she slips out the front door into the coming darkness.


	5. Witch's Familiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some innuendos but mostly Spike just being Spike

A small part of her hated taking the life of any living creature while her newer, wilder instincts twisted her stomach insisting yet again that she indulges in sating the dry ache in her throat.

“Spike will be back soon.” Angel promised from across the small card table noticing the younger woman’s discomfort.

“You don’t have to wait on me.” Again, Tara catches herself looking longingly toward the dwindling supply of blood bags Spike had left warming before leaving them again on another of his secret errands.

Angel shakes his head. “I’m not that thirsty right now.” Again, Tara struggles to fight down a wave of envy at just how well her ‘grand sire’ was handling his craving while she was left hanging at the things mercy. A cool hand closed over Tara’s clenched ones as the elder vampire leans across the table with an understanding smile. “You’re strong Tara but you’re also incredibly young. In time you’ll learn to control your thirst just as William and I have.”

A frustrated hiss follows as Tara shifts lower in her chair the picture of a pouting sullen teenager as yet another deep claw-like gouge appearing in the wall behind the upset blonde. The move adding a fresh coating of concrete and earth to the growing mound collecting against the wall beside the slab Tara used for a bed.

“How about another lesson?” As he’d hoped the offer caused Tara’s eyes to soften into something resembling happiness as she nodes her head. “ _Yes, please.”_

Angel cracks a small smile at the attempt his eager student makes. “close.” He corrects in that comforting fatherly way that always reminded Tara of Giles. “Le do thoil.” _(According to Google translate it should mean ‘Yes, Please’)_ He repeats in his native Gaelic tone.

“Le do thoil,” Tara repeats dragging her fingers away from trying to physically repress the dry scratch in her throat from her hunger. “Ba mhaith liom ceacht eile.” _(According to Google translate it should mean ‘I want another lesson’)_

“Then another lesson you shall have.” Her ‘grand sire’ promises getting up to retrieve the small notebook they’d started the day before on translating words from English to Angel’s more humanly native Irish ones.

They’d gotten through quite a few new ones when the heavy slab acting as the crypt door was hulled away long enough for a black leather clade something to slip through just before sunrise.

“Dinner time little witch,” William announces sweeping into the back of the mausoleum where the other two waited dropping off the lager of the two boxes onto the table in front of the surprised blonde as he shrugs off the strap of the duffle bag he was also carrying.

“Broke up another kitten ring on the way back.” Her sire shrugs noticing Tara’s curious glance at the smaller of the two boxes he had brought back with him this time. “All but this one scampered off when I took the rest to a non-demon run shelter least, they be traded right back off after I left.”

Tara immediately abandoned the shaking bunny that was her intended dinner on the half-finished game of solitaire she’d been trying to occupy her mind in favor of getting a better look at the newest new arrival to their little family.

As if sensing her as well a small ginger furred head poked out. Inquisitive grey eyes staring up into Tara’s surprised blue ones as the little kitten lets out a weak mew as if in greeting even before the newer vampire let her face shift back to a more humanized one.

“She’s beautiful.” The ‘baby vampire’ murmured reaching out one shaking finger toward the purring thing in the box. Tara hadn’t exactly gotten the hang of gentleness with her new vampiric form just yet despite her best efforts. The kitten however didn’t seem at all affected by what Tara called her ‘demonic’ presence as it was, the russet furred animal was currently attempting to climb up the side of the box to better reach Tara’s extended hand.

“Thought you two would hit it off.” Spike grinned in the middle of dropping off his latest supply run of blood bags to the mini-refrigerator. “You having a thing for ginger-haired girls and all.” He adds over his shoulder with a teasing wink that had she any circulating blood left would have had Tara blushing tomato worthy red to have overheard. As it was the shy blonde only ducks her head with a bashful smile.

“This means you’re going to start in with the pussy jokes now?” Angel inquires one delicate eyebrow raised in question as he leans back in his chair earning a bark of a laugh from Tara’s sire.

“You know I hadn’t even considered that yet.” Spike scoffed fainting disbelief rather perfectly earning a rather mirrored eye roll from the other two once he’d finished stashing away the new supply of blood.

“Reminds me of Miss Kitty.” Tara reminisces gingerly placing the box on the ground then folding herself down a few paces away curious as to what the kitten would do now she didn’t need to work so hard to get herself out.

“Told Buffy to watch those safety catches.” Spike sighs under his breath also recalling the sudden loss of said kitten to a no-win one-sided fight against an unattended crossbow not long after Tara’s first moving into the Summer’s house.

“Dawn cried for weeks afterward,” Tara remembered in awe when the fuzzy ginger puff ball staggered out on unsteady legs making an immediate shuffle toward her with a rather happy mew. “Willow offered to try to bring her back with a spell.” She goes on saddened even more now at the reminder. ‘Ginger fuzzy’ nuzzled against her ankle in comfort justling the dazed young vampire from her hazy human memories.

“Well happy birthday then, pet.”

Tara and Angel both gave the grinning white-haired vampire mirroring looks of confusion at the exclamation.

“What?” Spike fired back deadpan. “Vampire birthdays are just as important as human ones.” He shrugs passing over a warmed-over mug of bagged blood to Angel before fixing himself one as well.

“But I only became a vampire three days ago.” Tara points out not even flinching when kitten claws scrap her pale skin as ‘Ginger Fuzzy’ climbs up into her lap all but herself.

“Yeah, and I’ve been trying to think of a way to mark that happy occasion.” William cuts in “this seems like a good a way as any so there you go.” He waves a hand toward the three-week-old kitten curled up in Tara’s lap. “Happy vampire birthday. I got you a new pussy to play with until we can find a non-skin losing way of showing your old one, you’re not you know dead, dead.”

Had Tara been paying attention she would have caught the warning glare Angel was sending her sire at the oddly worded comment. As it was, she missed in interlay whilst watching ‘Ginger Fuzzy’ kneeing her jean clade thigh as the kitten snuggled in for a nap.

“I think I’ll call her Danielle.” Tara decides in a low whisper reaching out one finger to brush against the kitten’s delicate head.

**Author's Note:**

> For every comment, good or negative I'll add another chapter.


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